In short lines, large type, and text broken into phrases, three more stories are told. Marcos, Leon, and “I” try to out-do each other with warnings against tasting things that may not be safe. Dire consequences and ridiculous outcomes take the boys to new heights of hilarity in these spooky tales from Australia, Italy, and Eastern Europe. Grade 1–2—While the unnamed narrator is mowing the lawn, his mom warns him not to eat the fruit on their cherry tree. When he passes along the warning to his friends, the boys each share a story about forbidden foods. In Leon's creepy tale, a monster that dwells in a fig tree swallows the humans who try to eat the figs. The second story, told by the narrator, involves two brothers who wisely refuse to eat the bread offered to them by two witches-and thus avoid being turned into donkeys. Marcos's story, about a girl who eats Uncle Wolf's forbidden pancakes, has a cliff-hanger ending. Readers are encouraged to finish it themselves. The book concludes with a vague note about the origins of the tales-the first was inspired by an Australian legend (from the illustrations, it appears to have Aboriginal origins, though this is not mentioned in the text), and the second story is only identified as Eastern European. Although easy readers with scary stories are always popular, the drab book design and small black-and-white illustrations are not inviting. In addition, the framework of the cherry story feels forced. Better choices for beginning readers include Mary Ann Hoberman's You Read to Me, I'll Read to You: Very Short Scary Tales to Read Together (Little, Brown, 2007) or Alvin Schwartz's classic In a Dark, Dark Room and Other Scary Stories (HarperCollins, 1984).— Jackie Partch, Multnomah County Library, Portland, OR Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. Praise for the series: “. . . these page-turning stories . . . pack a punch in this concise format.“ — BayViews , Association of Children’s Librarians of Northern California “Toronto author Veronika Martenova Charles spins some edge-of-your-seat reading . . .” — The Record (Kitchener, ON) Veronika Martenova Charles is an award-winning author and illustrator whose books include: Maiden of the Mist: A Legend of Niagara Falls ; Stretch, Swallow, & Stare ; The Crane Girl ; and The Birdman , a finalist for the Governor General’s Literary Award for Children’s Illustration. Her first five books in the Easy-To-Read Spooky Tales series was published by Tundra Books in 2007. Veronika has studied at Ryerson University, the Ontario College of Art and Design, and recently completed her graduate studies in Folklore at York University. Veronika Martenova Charles lives in Toronto. David Parkins is the award-winning illustrator of over fifty children’s books. He began his career at Dyfed College of Art in Wales, studying wildlife illustration. He then went to Lincoln College of Art for three years, and has been a freelance illustrator since his graduation in 1979. He spent several years at the beginning of his career producing illustrations for educational publishers, and has earned most of his keep drawing for the British children’s comic, The Beano . David Parkins now lives in Lansdowne, Ontario, with his wife and daughter.